Robin McKinley

[Updated on: Fri, 10 October 2008 00:59]

How am I supposed to pick just 3? I see we're all having this problem.

1. I have to give The Hero and the Crown the top spot simply because I've read it something like 25 or 30 times. I have whole sections of it memorized (unintentional). My original paperback copy, given to me in sixth grade (*mumble* years ago), is a sad pathetic thing, but one of my greatest treasures; I had to seek out a hardcover library-bound copy about ten years ago in order to support my rereading habit.

2. The Blue Sword is a very close second and, depending on my mood, sometimes Number One. I want my very own Corlath. (And I'm not afraid to admit it, so there! haha). I had to upgrade to hardcover on this one too, because I reread this just as often as I do Hero. They're my two greatest comfort reads. I think it's got a lot to do with identifying with Harry and Aerin - I don't fit in well as a girl - and with wanting to learn to be a champion and overcome things as they did. Good messages in both of these, and I'm super excited that my daughter (now 6) is finally reading and will shortly be old enough for me to read these to her.

(I confess to reading bits of them to her while she was just weeks old in the cradle....)

3. Sunshine. Oh, my world brightened the day I stumbled across this on the Barnes and Noble shelf. I had no idea Robin had written a lovely grownup vampire book! And there it was! I bought it and headed off to the coffeehouse, where I curled up on the couch with a cup of Sumatra and stayed pretty much the entire weekend, to the proprietor's dismay. I love Sunshine's reluctance to be what she must; and the fact that, like Aerin and Harry, she gets it done in spite of herself. I love that Con is confusing and rather unattractive and yet compelling all the same. The book feels like my life - nothing quite fits into one box, nothing seems to work out perfectly or be totally resolved, and because of it, it's better. Eh, if I could explain myself in an articulate way I'd be a writer, but I think you all know what I mean.

I feel bad about Deerskin. I think I would have LOVED it, had it not been what I was reading the week my dad died. As things stand, between the subject matter, which resonates, and the memories of that week, which it brings back -- I can't reread it, despite 14 years having gone by, and so I don't know if I like it or not.

*sigh* And it's the one with sighthounds in it, too. It's just not fair.

Editing to add: in re-reading my response as well as those of others... I think the other reason I rank Hero above Sword is because of Aerin facing Maur. Because she rides around that corner, that morning, knowing she will die - even more surely than Harry does when she faces the Northern army - and does it alone. And then when she fails to die immediately, and instead has to linger on and on and on - I'm being inarticulate again, sorry. And after all that she has to deal with family crap too? But her courage and her grim determination and her flat refusal to lose have been at the core of some very major fights in my own life. Aerin's battles seem (in a figurative way) to reflect a lot of what I've gone through.
Harry, on the other hand, gets to have the kind of adventure(s) I WANT to go through, complete with the ending I want. I'd much rather end up with Corlath than Tor, thankyouverymuch! (Except that... in real life, I got Tor )

[Updated on: Sat, 11 October 2008 16:24]

[Updated on: Tue, 14 October 2008 12:32]